occult mysteries

The Occult Sun

We compare the speculative theories of material science with some of the little-known facts of occult science to reveal something of the hidden mysteries of the Sun.

The cool Sun

In 1926, an American engineer, James Churchward, startled the scientific community by declaring that: "the Sun is not a superheated body." This was quickly picked up by Dr G. L. Tanzer, a thinking scientist, who said: "Our heat does not come from the Sun but is an earthly energy in reciprocal interchange with that of the Sun." This confirms what occult science has known and taught for thousands of years. Churchward was not the first investigator to suggest that the Sun did not emit any heat. As long ago as the beginning of the 19th century, the eminent astronomer Sir William Herschel (the discoverer of the planet Uranus), wrote: "The surface of the Sun may be as cold as the surface of our earth. The Sun's rays only produce heat when they act upon a calorific medium; and heat only becomes sensible by their uniting together." By 'calorific', Herschel meant 'heat producing'. He went on to say: "If the solar rays themselves conveyed all the heat from the Sun which we find on our globe, we ought to perceive the most heat in places where the solar rays are least interrupted; as, for instance, on the tops of high mountains." We discuss the nature and properties of the mysteries force named 'caloric' by Herschel and others in our afterword to this article.

In an article published in the Popular Science Review in the 19th century, Robert Hunt F.R.S., writing about the luminous envelope of the Sun we now call the photosphere, quotes Herschel's description of its peculiar 'curd-like' appearance. "It may be compared to mother-of-pearl and resembles the ocean on a tranquil summer-day, when its surface is slightly crisped by a gentle breeze." Hunt went on to describe the objects we now call solar flares as: "peculiarly lens-shaped forms, like 'willow leaves', different in size and crossing each other in all directions. Whatever these sheets of flame may be, it is evident they are the immediate sources of solar heat and light. We have said that those forms have been compared to certain organisms, and Herschel says, 'Though it would be too daring to speak of such organisms as partaking of life, yet we do not know that vital action is competent to develop heat, light, and electricity.' Can it be that there is truth in this fine thought? May the pulsing of vital matter in the central Sun of our System be the source of all that life which crowds the earth, and without doubt overspreads the other planets, to which the Sun is the mighty Minister?" Occult science affirms all these propositions, and so, one day, will material science.

Churchward reached the same conclusion as Hunt and Herschel, stating that if the Sun were really hot, the Earth should experience a higher temperature when it is nearest to the Sun. It does not. In his book The Cosmic Forces of Mu, published in 1934, he gives an explanation for the heat we experience on earth which is consistent with both logic and occult scientific laws. As we discussed in our article on gravitational waves, the Earth is a magnet, as Paracelsus affirmed over 500 years ago. It is charged with one form of electricity, whilst the Sun, a very much larger and more powerful magnet, is charged with another. Like an ordinary magnet, the Earth's electromagnetic forces are strongest closest to it and become weaker the farther they have to travel. Now, occult science states that all electrified bodies emit rays (or waves—the same thing) the nature of which material science has as yet but partially understood, and when these rays meet, various natural phenomena are produced, of which heat and light are two.

Churchward correctly deduced that what we experience as heat on earth is governed by the angle at which the Sun's rays meet the earth's forces in the atmosphere. This is proven by the fact that where the sun's forces cut the earth's lines of force at right angles (such as at the poles), we have our frigid zones; where the earth's lines are cut obtusely, we have our temperate zones; and where the earth's lines are cut throughout their whole length, we experience the greatest heat—our tropical or torrid region. The second factor which determines heat is the length of time during each day throughout the year at any given latitude that the Sun's rays interact with the Earth's lines of force. This also explains why it gets colder the higher we ascend in the atmosphere. Science disputes this. It currently believes that the highest parts of the Earth's atmosphere are actually hotter than any point on the planet's surface. We shall examine this theory later when we discuss heat and energy.

Should you still doubt that the Sun is a cool body and not a fiery globe in combustion that will one day 'run out of fuel' as science believes, let us review what it has to say about the temperature of the Sun. In the Secret Doctrine, H. P. Blavatsky, quoting from the Journal of Science, 1881 (still in print today under the title The American Journal of Science), gives the temperature of the Sun (in degrees Celsius) 'calculated' by the famous scientists of the past. It makes interesting reading. We include a few of these estimates and the name of the scientist who came up with them in the table below:

Estimates of the Sun's temperature

The difference in these figures is as 1,461 against 9,000,000, or no less than about 8,998,600°C! There probably does not exist in science a more astonishing contradiction than that revealed in these figures. And yet when an occult scientist such as Rupert Sheldrake questions the dogmas of science, scientists vehemently protest in the name of 'exact' science that he is talking through his hat! In case you should think that these estimates have been improved upon in recent years, let us quote from the 1965 edition of Energy, which stated that the temperature of the interior of the Sun is 10,000,000 degrees Kelvin (K). Two years later, in 1967, the eminent English astronomer, Sir Bernard Lovell, quoted a figure of 100,000 K—a staggering difference of 100 times!

Nowadays it is much harder to compare the various estimates of the Sun's 'temperature' owing to the fact that science has divided the Sun into many distinct layers or regions, such as the core, the interior, convective zone, photosphere or visible surface, the chromosphere, and the corona. Another difficulty is that modern methods demand that international teams of scientists work side by side on the same vast projects—and naturally reach similar conclusions; a consensus that has immeasurably increased since the advent of the Internet. However, this does not mean that their speculations are any more correct. Moreover, it takes a very brave (or foolhardy) scientist to challenge this consensus, as those scientists who disagree with the theory of man-made global warming have discovered.

In 1975 Scientific American quoted the solar corona as being 1,000,000 K; while New Scientist said it was 2,000,000 K. In 1980, the eminent American astronomer, Carl Sagan stated: "The temperature at the core is an incredible 15,000,000 K"; while in 1994 the Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopædia stated: "The temperature of the core is 20,000,000 K." In 2010, NASA stated: "Temperatures in the sun's core reach over 15 million K", repeating what Sagan said 16 years earlier, but contradicting the estimates made in 1994! Here we must leave the scientists to fight out the Sun's temperature amongst themselves lest we raise the temperature of our readers to boiling point!

Heat and energy

As we said earlier, science currently believes that the highest parts of the Earth's atmosphere are hotter than the planet's surface. The so-called 'thermosphere', which science says begins some 50 miles above the surface of the Earth and reaches to a height of 300-600 miles (they are not sure which!), is thought to attain temperatures in excess of 1000°C! The fact of the matter is that you cannot measure the temperature of the thermosphere using a thermometer and no one ever has. Instead, scientists 'deduce' the theoretical temperature from such things as the gas density of that part of the atmosphere, which itself is measured from the observed deceleration of satellites as they orbit the Earth and encounter 'friction'. Whilst science claims that the temperature of the thermosphere is very high, it also says that we would not experience any heat because the atmosphere is so thin at that altitude that there are insufficient particles to transmit it.

Occult science states that the foregoing theory is a farrago of utter nonsense. Either the thermosphere is hot or it isn't. One cannot get out of the difficulty by employing antithetical sleight-of-hand, as science does when it asserts that temperature is a measure of how much energy individual particles have, whilst heat is a measure of how much energy is contained by all the particles in a given volume. If you think that sounds like gobbledygook, you would be right. Science hasn't the slightest idea what 'energy' is, never mind heat or light. If you doubt us, which would be an eminently sensible position to adopt, for we ask our readers to take nothing on trust and think for themselves, here is what one eminent physicist had to say about 'energy' as recently as 2014:

"We talk as though we understand energy. The fact is we do not. It is an indirectly observed quantity. We infer its existence. For example, in physics, we define energy as the ability of a physical system to do work on another physical system. Physics is one context that uses and defines the word energy. However, the word energy has different meanings in different contexts. Even the average person throws the term energy around in phrases like; 'I don't have any energy today,' generally inferring a lack of vigour, force, potency, zeal, push, and the like. The word energy finds its way into both the scientific community and our everyday communications, but the true essence of energy remains an enigma."

How pleasant it is to find an honest statement by an open-minded scientist that we can agree with! Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century said the same in one of his lectures when he admitted that: "It is important to realise that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is." Occult science, on the other hand, has long known what energy is: FOHAT, or Cosmic Electricity, of which our familiar terrestrial electricity is one of its effects on our plane of matter. Fohat, as H. P. Blavatsky tells us in the Secret Doctrine, "is the noumenon of the seven primary forces of Cosmic Electricity, whose purely phenomenal, and hence grossest effects are alone cognisable by physicists on the cosmic and especially on the terrestrial plane. These include, among other things, Sound, Light, Colour, etc." Occult science sees in all these Forces and manifestations a ladder, the lower rungs of which belong to exoteric physics, and the higher to a living, intelligent, invisible Power.

Most of you will know that an ordinary magnet loses the greater part of its magnetism when it gets hot. In physics this is called the Curie point, named after Pierre Curie, who showed that magnetism is lost at a specific temperature depending upon the material of which the magnet is composed. In neodymium magnets, which are the most powerful permanent magnets in commercial use, the Curie point is reached at a temperature of just 250°C (480°F). This is 1/20th of the current estimated temperature of the Sun's corona of 5000°C, and a tiny fraction of the estimated core temperature of 15 million degrees Celsius. Conversely, even at the boiling point of liquid nitrogen, which is a bone-chilling -196°C, a neodymium magnet will retain roughly 87 per cent of the field strength it had at room temperature.

Science talks glibly about 'electromagnetic energy' from the Sun, yet insists this energy comes from a superheated ball of fire, flatly contradicting the laws of physics and established fact. Scientists cannot have it both ways. Either the sun is a magnetic body, in which case it must be cold, or it is hot, in which case it cannot emit any electromagnetic 'waves'. We have now shown that the Sun is a cool, electromagnetic body, whose energy is responsible for heat, light and motion, via the medium of Fohat, or Cosmic Electricity. The storehouse of Fohat in our solar system is the Sun, as it is in every other Kosmos, and within atoms, their nucleus—the microcosmic 'sun'—which gives life to the particles that orbit it.

Electricity—the life-blood of the solar system

As we discuss in our article on why matter matters, the real nature of Electricity and Magnetism is completely unknown to material science. If we consult any good dictionary all we will learn is that electricity is "a form of energy resulting from the existence of charged particles (such as electrons or protons), either statically as an accumulation of charge or dynamically as a current." Wikipedia says electricity is "the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and flow of an electric charge." Unfortunately, neither of these definitions tells us what this mysterious force actually IS. What about Magnetism? Wikipedia tells us that "Magnetism is a class of physical phenomena that includes forces exerted by magnets on other magnets." Not very helpful, is it?

Some scientists neatly sidestep these semantic difficulties by stating that electricity does not exist in itself, but only in the phenomena arising from it. This is a bit like the scientific definition of 'Energy' as "the ability to do work." We don't know about you, but we know plenty of very 'energetic' people who never seem to do any work! Perhaps they are simply 'conserving' energy? Unfortunately, electrical phenomena which can be explained satisfactorily by material science, such as 'charge', 'current', 'voltage', 'field' etc., still do not get us any nearer to an answer. Some scientists are unhappy with this impasse. One electrical engineer writes: "Electricity is a mysterious incomprehensible entity which is invisible and visible, both at the same time. When electricity flows through a light bulb's filament, it gets changed entirely into light. Yet not one bit of electricity is ever used up by the light bulb, and every last bit flows out of the filament and back down the other wire."

So we have learned something at least: that electricity produces various effects (such as the illumination of a light bulb), and that it is 'a mysterious incomprehensible entity.' Incomprehensible to material science, but not to occult science, which has known all about this force for thousands of years. As we have seen, terrestrial electricity is the lowest manifestation on our plane of the same mysterious force we have discussed earlier: Fohat, or Cosmic Electricity. Even science acknowledges that an electrical charge in motion causes a magnetic field, and a magnetic field in motion causes an electric charge. But why this happens material science does not know.

The beating heart of the solar system

In March 2000, scientists announced that they had detected a 'heartbeat' within the Sun and published their findings in the journal Science. "Like blood pulsing in an artery, newly discovered currents of gas beat deep inside the Sun, speeding and slackening every 16 months." The researchers went on to say "The solar 'heartbeat' throbs in the same region of the Sun suspected of driving the 11-year cycle of solar eruptions, during which the Sun goes from stormy to quiet and back again. Scientists are hopeful that this pulse can help them unravel the origin and operation of the solar cycle." Having made the connection between the Sun and the human heart, the scientists do not appear to have realised the implications of their discovery. We doubt they ever will, until or unless they relinquish their mechanistic model of the Universe.

Occult science affirms that the Sun is the life-giving, controlling, regulative, coordinative, all-pervading central power in any solar system. It reflects visibly the highest state of the Universal Presence, the Supreme Deity, and exhibits the first, or lowest, state of the seventh. For these reasons the Sun has stood as the symbol of the Creator in many of the ancient religions; this referring to the physical creation of the Kosmos in general, and, with man, to the earth and all that is in it, in particular.

In the Secret Doctrine, Madame Blavatsky tells us: "The Sun is the heart of the solar system and its brain is hidden behind the (visible) Sun. From thence, sensation is radiated into every nerve-centre of the great body, and the waves of the life-essence flow into each artery and vein." The Sun regulates the circulation of the vital fluid throughout the solar system in a similar manner to the way in which blood circulates in the human body, proving the universal applicability of the Hermetic law 'As above; so below—but after another manner.'

The Sun contracts rhythmically at every return of the vital fluid, just as the human heart does. Only, instead of performing the round in a second or so, it takes the solar blood ten of its years, and a whole year to pass through its auricles and ventricles before it washes the lungs and passes thence to the great veins and arteries of the solar system. This, of course, is reflected in the well-known 11-year sunspot cycle, discovered by Schwabe in 1843. But despite nearly two centuries of observation and research scientists still don't know what causes it.

Explanations such as "sunspots are caused by the Sun's magnetic field welling up to the photosphere", are simply not good enough for any thinking person, least of all one who professes to be a 'scientist.' Perhaps the silliest theory we have encountered—which to our dismay—but not to our surprise, is widely quoted, is that "differential rotation twists the Sun's subsurface magnetic field until it breaks through the surface as sunspots." What does this tell us? Only that the phenomena we know as sunspots are the result of magnetic activity of some kind. But of what, material science cannot tell us. If, on the other hand, you have followed our discussion with attention—have you?—good, you will know that the answer is Fohat, or Cosmic Electricity. We shall come back to this later when we discuss sunspots.

The singing Sun

In 2014, naturopath, Stephen Linsteadt, published an article about the correspondences between the Sun and the human heart. Drawing upon data obtained by astronomers at Stanford University in the USA, who 'listen' to the sound waves emitted by the Sun, he came up with some remarkable correspondences which confirm many of the propositions made by Pythagoras in his famous theory of the 'Music of the Spheres'. Linsteadt tells us that the Stanford scientists recorded acoustic pressure waves coming from the Sun and speeded them up 42,000 times to produce a frequency that we can hear. The result was a musical tone with a frequency of 144 cycles per second (Hz). This will lead us to some interesting discoveries, as we shall see.

The musicians among our readers will know that the 2nd overtone or 3rd harmonic of this frequency is 432 Hz, which is the note 'A' in the Pythagorean tuning system, sometimes called 'old pitch', as opposed to the modern standard concert pitch of 440Hz. Now, it so happens that the human heart beats 4,320 times per hour (72 beats per minute). The beating heart is also connected to larger cycles of time, such as the 'Great Year' of 25,920 years (432 x 60), during which period of time the equinoxes return to their starting point, usually referred to as the 'precession of the equinoxes' or 'axial precession.'

The number 432 is also related to much larger cycles of cosmic time, as some of our readers who are familiar with the 'Days and Nights of Brahma' mentioned in the sacred books of Hinduism will know. These immense time periods govern the periods of sleep and wakefulness to which every solar system is subject, and they correspond to the same cycles in man. One Day of Brahma is said to last 4,320,000,000 mortal years, whilst the Kali Yuga, or 'Black Age' whose miseries we are currently suffering, lasts 432,000 mortal years, of which nearly 427,000 years still remain, so we are by no means out of the wood yet! According to the calculations of the ancient Hindu Sages, the duration of a Maha Yuga, or 'great age', is 4,320,000 mortal years, which is a 100th part of a Day of Brahma. We aim to discuss these enormous cycles of time in a future article.

The spotty Sun

As recently as 2014, scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in the USA, admitted that: "Sunspots are still one of the greatest mysteries of astronomy." Mystery—as H. P. Blavatsky tells us in the Secret Doctrine, quoting Father Felix—is "the fatality of science." She goes on to say: "has science been able to penetrate the secret of the formation of a body, the generation of a single atom? What is there, I will not say at the centre of a sun, but at the centre of an atom? Who has sounded to the bottom the abyss in a grain of sand? The grain of sand has been studied four thousand years by science, she has turned and returned it; she divides it and subdivides it; she torments it with her experiments; she vexes it with her questions to snatch from it the final word as to its secret constitution; she asks it, with an insatiable curiosity: 'Shall I divide thee infinitesimally?' Then suspended over this abyss, science hesitates, she stumbles, she feels dazzled, she becomes dizzy, and in despair says: I DO NOT KNOW."

These words are as true today as when Madame Blavatsky wrote them more than 130 years ago. Although science has known for more than a century that sunspots are compact, concentrated magnetic fields, why they become concentrated and join together in groups for days and sometimes weeks before disappearing again remains a mystery. What science has discovered is that sunspots are always found in pairs and that some sunspots have a positive charge while others have a negative charge. It is now thought that a positively charged sunspot marks the point where magnetic lines of force leave the sun, while a negatively charged spot marks the point where those lines of force return to the sun. But until or unless science makes the connection between the Sun and the human heart we discussed earlier, the significance of these suggestive phenomena will continue to elude it.

Occult science, on the other hand, has always known that the sunspot cycle is caused by the contraction and expansion of the Solar heart, as we learned earlier. The solar system breathes, just as man and every living creature, plant, and even mineral does on earth; and as our globe itself breathes every twenty-four hours. The dark colour of sunspots is not due to them being 'cooler' than the rest of the Sun, nor are they 'dragging hot plasma with them', as some scientists believe, for as we have seen, the Sun is a cool body. Madame Blavatsky tells us that "could the human heart be made luminous, and the living and throbbing organ be made visible, so as to have it reflected upon a screen, then everyone would see the Sunspot phenomenon repeated every second—due to its contraction and the rushing of the solar blood."

Conclusion

If you have followed our discussion attentively, you will now know more about the Sun than any scientist, unless he or she happens to be an occult scientist, which is not impossible, for many scientists are fascinated by the occult sciences, and we could name a great many of them if we wished. What we have put before you in this article, is but the ABC of what occult science knows about the Sun, but even that was a closely-guarded secret until H. P. Blavatsky first revealed it to the West in her two master-works—Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine. Many a thinking scientist has quenched his thirst for knowledge in these two books, which remain as underrated and largely misunderstood today as when they were written more than a century ago. Blavatsky herself said they were centuries ahead of their time and we agree. If this article and our afterword encourage you to take up the study of the priceless gift of the Ancient Wisdom H. P. Blavatsky gave to the world, we shall be well content.

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Sun Force

Our afterword has been adapted from the Secret Doctrine, in which H. P. Blavatsky describes the nature and properties of the mysterious force contained in the Sun. Interested readers are referred to volume I of the book, p524 et seq. We would add that no other author has ever provided such a complete and accurate description of this mysterious force, which had hitherto been one of the mostly closely-guarded secrets of occult science.

In the Secret Doctrine, H. P. Blavatsky quotes at length from the work of a thinking scientist whose name is virtually unknown today. That man was Samuel Lytler Metcalfe (1798-1856), an American chemist and physician who wrote a remarkable book entitled Caloric: Its Mechanical Chemical and Vital Agencies in the Phenomena of Nature. That fountainhead of political rectitude and humbug, Wikipedia, smugly tells us that: "caloric...is an obsolete scientific theory that heat consists of a self-repellent fluid called caloric that flows from hotter bodies to colder bodies." We shall show that far from being the author of an 'obsolete theory', Metcalfe accurately described the nature and properties of what Blavatsky calls 'Sun Force', the complete nature and properties of which are known only to the highest initiates and adepts.

Starting with the premise with which nearly all 19th century physicists were in agreement (and their 21st century successors have yet to re-discover) that there exist in nature two agencies—matter which is ponderable, visible, and tangible, and a something which is imponderable, invisible, and appreciable only by its influence on matter—Metcalfe posited that the imponderable and active agency which he called 'caloric' is not a mere form of motion, not a vibration amongst the particles of ponderable matter, but itself a material substance flowing from the Sun through Space, filling every point of our solar system and conveying by sensation the property called heat. Metcalfe lists the properties of this force as follows:

"That it may be added to, and abstracted from other bodies and measured with mathematical precision.

That it augments the volume of bodies, which are again reduced in size by its abstraction.

That it modifies the forms, properties, and conditions of all other bodies.

That it passes by radiation through the most perfect vacuum that can be formed, in which it produces the same effects on the thermometer as in the atmosphere.

That it exerts mechanical and chemical forces which nothing can restrain, as in volcanoes, the explosion of gunpowder, and other fulminating compounds.

That it operates in a sensible manner on the nervous system, producing intense pain; and when in excess, disorganisation of the tissues.

Metcalfe adds that: "if the Sun Force were a mere property or quality, it could not augment the volume of other bodies; for this purpose it must itself have volume, it must occupy space, and it must, therefore, be a material agent." This statement is in perfect accord with the laws of occult, as opposed to material science. Metcalfe based his hypothesis on the fact that the Sun Force, or caloric, is a Self-active principle. He said it repels its own particles but has affinity for the particles of all ponderable matter, and that it attracts the particles of ponderable matter with forces which vary inversely as the squares of the distance, so confirming the inverse square law of modern physics.

Metcalfe also laid down a law which he believed to be absolute which he expressed as: "by the attraction of caloric for ponderable matter, it unites and holds together all things; by its self-repulsive energy it separates and expands all things." This again, is pure occult science.

Commenting on Metcalfe's hypotheses, Dr. B. W. Richardson, writing in the Popular Science Review said: "The hypothesis of Metcalfe respecting sun-force and earth-force is not only very simple, but most fascinating. Here are two elements in the Universe, the one is ponderable matter, the second element is the all-pervading Ether, solar-fire which is without weight, substance, form or colour. It is matter infinitely divisible, and its particles repel each other; its rarity is such that we have no word, except ether, by which to express it. It pervades and fills space, but alone it too is quiescent; dead."

Metcalfe's description of the properties of Sun Force and Richardson's comments upon his work agree in the main with the known laws of occult science. However, there are some errors in their speculations, as H. P. Blavatsky points out in her footnotes. "Sun Force not only flows through Space but fills every point of our solar system, for it is the physical residue, so to say, of Ether, its lining on our plane; Ether having to serve other cosmic and terrestrial purposes besides being the 'agent' for transmitting light. It is the astral fluid or 'Light' of the Kabbalists, and the 'Seven rays' of Sun-Vishnu." Nor is it correct from the standpoint of occult science to call the Sun Force 'ether' as Richardson does, for it is only one of the principles of Ether, the latter being itself one of the principles of Akasa, or Prima Materia. Richardson also errs when he says that ponderable matter can ever be dead. It may be inert when it is in a quiescent state, but it is never dead.

Richardson goes on to say: "Through the particles of the ponderable substance the ether penetrates, and, so penetrating, it combines with the ponderable particles and holds them in mass, holds them together in bond of union; they are dissolved in the Ether. This distribution of solid ponderable matter through ether extends, according to Metcalfe's theory, to everything that exists at this moment. The ether is all-pervading. The human body itself is charged with the ether; its minute particles are held together by it; the plant is in the same condition; the most solid earth, rock, adamant, crystal, metal, all are the same." If we substitute the words 'astral light' for 'ether' in Richardson's summary of Metcalfe's theory, it is essentially the doctrine of occult science.

Occult science also says that there are differences in the capacities of different kinds of matter to receive Sun Force, and upon this depends the various changing conditions of matter; the solid, the liquid and the gaseous. Solid bodies attract the Sun Force more than fluid bodies, and hence their firm cohesion. When a portion of molten zinc is poured upon a plate of solid zinc, the molten zinc becomes a solid because there is a rush of the Sun Force from the liquid to the solid, and in the equalisation the particles, previously loose or liquid, are more closely brought together. Metcalfe himself, dwelling on the above-named phenomena, and accounting for them by the unity of principle of action, which has already been explained, sums up his argument in very clear terms, in a comment on the densities of various bodies.

"Hardness and softness," he says, "solidity and liquidity, are not essential conditions of bodies, but depend on the relative proportions of ethereal and ponderable matter of which they are composed. The most elastic gas may be reduced to the liquid form by the abstraction of caloric, and again converted into a firm solid, the particles of which would cling together with a force proportional to their augmented affinity for caloric. On the other hand, by adding a sufficient quantity of the same principle to the densest metals, their attraction for it is diminished when they are expanded into the gaseous state, and their cohesion is destroyed."

Metcalfe summed up his remarkable theory with the following words: "I shall not dwell at great length on this unity of Sun Force and earth, which this theory implies. But I may add that out of it, or out of the hypothesis of mere motion as force, and of virtue without substance, we may gather, as the nearest possible approach to the truth on this, the most complex and profound of all subjects, the following inferences:

"(a) Space, inter-stellary, inter-planetary, inter-material, inter-organic, is not a vacuum, but is filled with a subtle fluid or gas, which for want of a better term we may still call, as the ancients did, Aith-ur—Solar fire, AETHER. This fluid, unchangeable in composition, indestructible, invisible, pervades everything and all ponderable matter. The pebble in the running brook, the tree overhanging, the man looking on, is charged with the ether in various degree; the pebble less than the tree, the tree less than man. All in the planet is in like manner so charged! A world is built up in ethereal fluid, and moving through a sea of it.

"(b) The Ether, whatever its nature is, is from the sun and the sun is the generator of it, the storehouse of it, the diffuser of it.

"(c) Without the ether there could be no motion; without it particles of ponderable matter could not glide over each other; without it there could be no impulse to excite those particles into action.

"(d) Ether determines the constitution of bodies. Were there no ether there could be no change of constitution in substance; water, for instance, could only exist as a substance, compact and insoluble beyond any conception we could form of it. It could never even be ice, never fluid, never vapour, except for ether.

"(e) Ether connects sun with planet, planet with planet, man with planet, man with man. Without ether there could be no communication in the Universe; no light, no heat, no phenomenon of motion."

Madame Blavatsky correctly points out that "Ether is unchangeable only during Manvantaric periods, after which it merges once more into the 'invisible' for ever." We would also add that although the Sun is the storehouse of Ether in our solar system, it is not the source of this force, which is the Central Sun—the invisible and unknowable heart of the Universe, of which our Sun is the reflection, twice removed.

If ever Samuel Metcalfe's theory of Sun Force is accepted, and if that other far bolder one of Herschel about certain living organisms in the Sun, which we mentioned in our article at left—is accepted, even as a provisional hypothesis, it will vindicate the teachings of occult science which anticipated the theories of modern science by several million of years.

Bibliographical noteCaloric: Its Mechanical Chemical and Vital Agencies in the Phenomena of Nature by Samuel L Metcalfe, was first published in 2 vols., London, in 1843. A reprint is available from Amazon in the UK and USA, ISBN-13: 978-1142889654, published by Nabu Press as a print-on-demand book in paperback and hardcover. Nabu Press do not enjoy a very good reputation in the book trade or among their customers. For this reason we caution readers who are interested in obtaining their edition that it may contain errors, omissions and imperfections.

Further reading

Why matter mattersIn this article we separate fact from fancy in the theories of science to discover what matter really is.